Bhubaneswar: Even as India and Indonesia have shared two millennia of close cultural and commercial contacts, both countries are currently celebrating the 75^th anniversary of India-Indonesia diplomatic relations.

The shared culture, colonial history and post-independence goals of political sovereignty, economic self-sufficiency and independent foreign policy have been proving the binding glue for their bilateral relations.

Ancient Indian culture holds a strong grip over the Indonesian culture, the stories from great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata form source of Indonesian folk art and dramas.

Amidst the close cultural contact of 2000 years, the visiting Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who has been the chief guest of 76^th Republic Day Parade, has revealed big during his address at the dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu. 

President Subianto said, "India and  Indonesia have a long, ancient history together. We have civilizational links, even now a very important part of our language comes from Sanskrit. Many names of Indonesia are actually Sanskrit names and in our daily life, the influence of ancient Indian civilization is very strong. I think it's also part of our genetics."

“I HAVE INDIAN DNA”

Speaking at the Dinner, President Subianto said something BIG.

"A few weeks ago I had my genetic sequencing test and my DNA test and they told me that I have Indian DNA. Everybody knows when I hear Indian music, I start dancing," the President said in the Dinner meet attended by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar and PM Narendra Modi.

The words “I have Indian DNA. Everybody knows when I hear Indian music, I start dancing” leaves everyone in the hall in splits.

“LEARNT A LOT FROM PM MODI”

President Subianto seems to have all praise for PM Modi’s leadership and commitments to the nation and societal welfare.

Praising PM Modi's leadership and commitment towards alleviating poverty and helping the marginalized, the Indonesian President said he learned a lot from him in the few days.

"I am very proud to be here (in India)...I am not a professional politician, I am not a good diplomat, I say what is in my heart. I came here for a few days but learned a lot from Prime Minister Modi's leadership and commitments...His commitment to alleviating poverty, helping the marginalized, and helping the weakest part of your society, is an inspiration for us," the President said. 

INDIAN GENE IN INDONESIA – THE TRUTH

As per a study published in Quaternary International – Elsevier in 2016, Indonesian population genetic makeup hss very much the Indian in it.

The study finds: 

• Western Eurasia (WE), notably the Near East and South Asia, had established very close contact with Island South East Asia, particularly Indonesia, through cultural and trading networks in the Maritime Silk Route as early as the 1st century B.C.E.
• Contacts between the Indian sub-continent and Southeast Asia occurred even earlier (from the late 2nd millennium B.C.E.) if the evidence from transfers of plants considered.
• Trade networks were well established by the 1st millennium B.C.E.
• Indianization led to development of Hindu kingdoms between 5^th to 10^th Century
• And Islamization in Indonesia later led to the development Islamic kingdoms between 10^th and 15th centuries.
• This reinforced interactions and influence from Western Eurasian to all regions of western and central Indonesia.
• These interactions brought not only new ideas and trade goods into the Indonesian archipelago, but were also accompanied to some degree by gene flow, which contributed to a number of modern Indonesian populations.
• Considering the historical events of the last two millennia, it has been variously postulated that Western Eurasian genetic influx into Indonesia could have originated from populations in India via the main Indian kingdoms –
• Pallava and latter Chola in Southeast India;
• Gurjara and Rashtrakuta in north and east India; 
• and later Indian sultanates
• The genetic evidence so far suggests that the primary contribution came from the Indian subcontinent
• The study says: Indeed, genetic traces of paternal Indian ancestry have been detected at low frequency in Indonesia (<10%) across several islands (Sumatra, Java, Borneo and Bali)
• But in comparison, no Indian maternal lineages have been detected.
•  The influx of Indian ancestry has also been observed from genome-wide analysis using a limited number of nuclear Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in just a few populations from western Indonesia (Sumatra).